Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle isn’t your traditional Saturday night TV comedy. There’s no sparkly suits, dazzling white grins or jazz hands here. No smell of the crowd or roar of the greasepaint.
Instead, there’s a fat, depressed Todd Carty lookalike (his description, honest) mumbling into a microphone in a working men’s club.
This weekend’s comeback episode was a case in point. Ostensibly, the theme of Lee’s routine was the pernicious, pervasive effects of the internet and how it’s created a spoilt generation who want everything easy and have no imagination.
Doesn’t sound like a big bundle of ROFLs, perhaps, but by the time Lee had turned it into a searing theses, full of digressions, rants, repetitions and asides, it was a comedy masterclass.
There was a masterful takedown of Twitter, which Lee called “a state surveillance agency staffed by gullible volunteers, a Stasi for the Angry Birds generation”. He described a Northumbrian village called Shilbottle and how road sign vandals turned it into “Shitbottle, twinned with Bouteille Du Merde, France and Scheisse Flasche, Germany”.
He riffed on two other UK towns with pooey names, Crapstone and Shitterton, at one point indulging in a long, mimed phone argument sbout manure with an imaginary adversary. He gave Vodafone a kicking, reminisced about Big D peanuts and conjured up a retro web where AltaVista, MySpace and AskJeeves were the major players. Halcyon days.
These stand-up segments were interspersed by downbeat chats with satirist and “hostile interrogator” Chris Morris, who deconstructed Lee’s schtick, exposed his hypocrisy and chipped away at his confidence.
It was genuinely exciting to see the creator of The Day Today, Nathan Barley and Brass Eye back on our screens, even in a low-key cameo.
Lee’s stand-up style has no truck with mediocrity, faux-mateyness, cliché or easy guffaws. Indeed, he attacks crowd-pleasers like Michael McIntyre, Russell Howard and Lee Mack on a regular basis, which must make things a bit awkz on the comedy circuit.
Rather than settling for “is it just me or…?” cosy observation, Lee uses his incisive intelligence to delve into topics with an analytical eye, instantly unpick his own jokes and lambast the complacent audience for being part of the problem, not part of the solution. When he got a ripple of claps, he called it “the sound of the middle class applauding their own guilt”.
The result is a routine that not only makes you slide off the sofa in hysterics but grips with its hypnotic intensity and leaves you feeling improved, not just entertained. Comedy that makes you stop and think, as well as snort with mirth. A notion that Lee himself would doubtless rip to shreds but it’s true and it makes Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle essential viewing. If you don’t believe me, you can sh*t in a bottle.
Lenny Darksphere, Twitter
Lenny Darksphere, Twitter
Lancethrustworthy, Youtube
Lancethrustworthy, Youtube
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Pnethor, pne-online.com
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Tin Frog, Twitter
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Hiewy, Youtube
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Spanner, dontstartmeoff.com
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Rowing Rob, Guardian.co.uk
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Whoiscuriousgeorge, Youtube
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James Dellingpole, Daily Telegraph
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Shit Crit, Twitter
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Cojones2, Guardian.co.uk
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Frankie Boyle, Comedian
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Aaron, comedy.co.uk
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Horatio Melvin, Twitter
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DVDhth's grandparents, Twitter
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Leach Juice, Twitter
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Guest, Dontstartmeoff.com
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Dominic Cavendish, Daily Telegraph
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Pudabaya, beexcellenttoeachother.com
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Guest1001, Youtube
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Mini-x2, readytogo.net
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Chez, Chortle.com
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Bosco239, youtube
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Gwaites, Digitalspy
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Sidsings000, Youtube
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Liam Travitt, Twitter
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Lucinda Locketts, Twitter
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Aiden Hearn, Twitter
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Anon, BBC Complaints Log
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Al Murray, Comedian
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Visualiser1, Twitter
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Tres Ryan, Twitter
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Henry Howard Fun, Twitter
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BBC iPlayer edition of discussion of Stewart Lee on A Good Read
BBC iPlayer edition of discussion of Stewart Lee on A Good Read
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Gabrielle, Chortle.com
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Karen Laidlaw, Edfringe. com.
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Tweeter Kyriakou, Twitter
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Zombie Hamster, Twitter
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Len Firewood, Twitter
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Coxy, Dontstartmeoff.com
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Johnny Kitkat, dontstartmeoff.com
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Patrick Kavanagh, Guardian.co.uk
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Neolab, Guardian.co.uk
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Lee Mack, Mack The Life, 2012
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Sam Rooney, Youtube
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Genghis McKahn, Guardian.co.uk
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98rosjon, Twitter
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Dahoum, Guardian.co.uk
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Anonymous, don'tstartmeoff.com
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Fowkes81, Twitter
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Meanstreetelite, Peoplesrepublicofcork
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Meninblack, Twitter
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Alex Quarmby, Edfringe.com
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Birmingham Sunday Mercury
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Anonymous, The Northfield Patriot
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Dominic Cavendish, Telegraph
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Syhr, breakbeat.co.uk
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Richard Herring, Comedian
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World Without End, Twitter
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Esme Folley, Actress, cellist, Twitter
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Anon, dontstartmeoff.com
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Iain, eatenbymissionaries
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Neva2busy, dontstartmeoff.com
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Maninabananasuit, Guardian.co.uk
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Joe, Independent.co.uk
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Anamatronix, Youtube
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Mrdavisn01, Twitter
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Nicetime, Guardian.co.uk
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Alwyn, Digiguide.tv
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Cabluigi, Guardian.co.uk
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General Lurko 36, Guardian.co.uk
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Clampdown59, Twitter.
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Peter Fears, Twitter
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Danazawa, Youtube
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John Robins, Comedian
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Dave Wilson, Chortle.com
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Cyberbloke, Twitter
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Brendon, Vauxhallownersnetwork.co.uk
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Brighton Argus
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NevW47479, UKTV.co.uk
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Yukio Mishima, dontstartmeoff.com
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Tokyofist, Youtube
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Peter Ould, Twitter
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Etienne, Chortle.com
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Bobby Bhoy, Twitter
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Lents, redandwhitekop.com
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Borathigh5, Youtube
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Carcrazychica, Youtube
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Ishamayura Byrd, Twitter
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Tweeterkiryakou, Twitter
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Someoneyoudon'tknow, Chortle.com
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Pirate Crocodile, Twitter
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Emilyistrendy, Youtube